Elizabeth Baines' new book "Too Many Magpies" has been published and one tree is planted for each copy!

Congrats to author Elizabeth Baines! Last Thursday was the official publication date of her new book "Too Many Magpies"!

Not only that this is a great book that was already described as 'moving and compelling' by Sarah Salway, but it's also going green with Eco-Libris - as we mentioned here couple of months ago, the author, Elizabeth Baines, is collaborating with Eco-Libris to green up her book by planting one tree for every copy printed.

Too Many Magpies will be the second book published at Salt Publishing that we're working with after "The White Road and Other Stories" by Tania Hershman.

So what's this book is about? here's the description from its webpage:

Can we believe in magic and spells? Can we put our faith in science?

A young mother married to a scientist fears for her children’s safety as the natural world around her becomes ever more uncertain. Until, that is, she meets a charismatic stranger who seems to offer a different kind of power… But is he a saviour or a frightening danger? And, as her life is overturned, what is happening to her children whom she vowed to keep safe? Why is her son Danny now acting so strangely?

In this haunting, urgent and timely novel, Elizabeth Baines brings her customary searing insight to the problems of sorting our rational from our irrational fears and of bringing children into a newly precarious world. In prose that spins its own spell she exposes our hidden desires and the scientific and magical modes of thinking which have got us to where we are now.

The book is available now with 20% off from the Salt website.

You're also invited to visit Elizabeth Baines' blog, where you can find further details on forthcoming readings and of course her update about the publication date.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: promoting sustainable reading!

My Summer Reading with author Elizabeth Baines

Our second author today on our My Summer Reading Series is author Elizabeth Baines, whom we work with to green up her upcoming book "Too Many Magpie" by planting one tree for every copy printed.

Elizabeth Baines was born in South Wales and lives in Manchester. She has been a teacher and is an occasional actor as well as the prize-winning author of plays for radio and stage, and of two novels, The Birth Machine and Body Cuts. Her award-winning short stories have been published widely in magazines and anthologies.

Hi Elizabeth, What are you reading now?
I'm reading Dido, the new novel for young adults by my friend Adele Geras, and John Lahr's The Autograph Hound for my reading group.

Any recommendation on a good summer reading?
I always think Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca is a great summer read because if I'm right she wrote it during one rainy summer stay in Cornwall, and that atmosphere pervades the novel. Ali Smith's The Accidental is a great book about a summer holiday with a weird turn of events, as is Margaret Atwood's Surfacing, which has an environmental thread.

What you are planning to read this summer?
A whole pile of Salt books - short stories and poetry.

What is your favorite place to read in the summer?
In the middle of a field under a tree halfway up a mountain in North Wales - when the weather's good!

Thanks Elizabeth!

"Too Many Magpie" is due from Salt Modern Fiction in Oct 2009. You can read more about Elizabeth on these links:

www.elizabethbaines.com
http://elizabethbaines.blogspot.com
http://fictionbitch.blogspot.com

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolibris.net

An upcoming novel of author Elizabeth Baines is going green with Eco-Libris

We are happy to announce on a collaboration with author Elizabeth Baines to green up her upcoming book "Too Many Magpie" by planting one tree for every copy printed.

The book, due from Salt Modern Fiction in October, is a novel with an environmental theme. It will be the second book published at Salt Publishing that we're working with after "The White Road and Other Stories" by Tania Hershman.

Here's some more details about the upcoming book:

A young mother's faith in science is undermined as the natural world around her becomes ever more uncertain and when she meets a man who seems to offer a different, more magical kind of power... In this haunting, urgent and timely novel Elizabeth Baines explores the problem of sorting our rational from our irrational fears, the implications of bringing children into a newly precarious world, and the scientific and magical modes of thinking which have got us to where we are now.

About the author:
Elizabeth Baines was born in South Wales and lives in Manchester. She has been a teacher and is an occasional actor as well as the prize-winning author of plays for radio and stage, and of two novels, The Birth Machine and Body Cuts. Her award-winning short stories have been published widely in magazines and anthologies.

Other books of Elizabeth Baines:
Balancing on the Edge of the World (Salt Publishing, 1997) - a collection of short stories about power and powerlessness, and those moments when the balance of power - between a violent father and his daughter, between a doctor and his smug patient, between an unsuspecting teenager and the dangerous world around him - can subtly or dramatically change for ever...

What other people have said about the book:

'Quite swept me off my feet... ' - Dovegreyreader

'A stunning debut collection' - Melissa Lee-Houghton, The Short Review

The Birth Machine (Women's Press 1983; Revised edition, 'The Author's Cut', Starling 1996) - White rats in the lab, a murder deep in the past, Zelda strapped to a bed in a high-tech maternity ward and some mysteries about to unravel. Adapted by Elizabeth Baines and broadcast as a play for Radio 4

What other people have said about the book:
'The birth myth of our age' - IN DUBLIN
'A gripping, pithy book' - Katy Campbell
'An increasingly powerful narrative... Sharp satire - TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

Body Cuts (Pandora, 1988) -Is Bron being followed? Is her ex-lover a threat? The frightening power of fantasy turned reality

What other people have said about it:
'Strikingly told' - SUNDAY TIMES
'Thought-provoking' - MORE!
Click to read a review by Bob Corbett, Webster University.

You can read more about the author on these links:

www.elizabethbaines.com

http://elizabethbaines.blogspot.com

http://fictionbitch.blogspot.com

We will keep you posted as soon as Too Many Magpies will be released.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolibris.net

* Enclosed photo of author Elizabeth Baines is by Tom Wright